1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin fragmental titanium oxide and a porous body as an aggregate thereof, and methods for their production. More particularly, this invention relates to a thin fragmental titanium oxide and a porous body as an aggregate thereof, which are useful as pigments, coating materials, cosmetics, additives to e.g. white papers or resins such as nylon, and photofunctional materials such as e.g. catalysts, and method for their production.
2. Discussion of Background
As a method for producing titanium oxide, a method has heretofore been known wherein titanium chloride is oxidized at a high temperature in a gas phase, or a gel obtained by hydrolysis of e.g. titanium sulfate or a titanium alkoxide, is heated to obtain titanium oxide.
However, products produced by such conventional methods are aggregates of fine spherical particles, and porous products are rare. With conventional porous products, the average pore size is at a level of 20 nm at the maximum.
Titanium oxide is widely used for coating materials and cosmetics, and also as additives to resins or papers, by virtue of its excellent characteristics such as whiteness and ultraviolet ray shielding ability. However, such titanium oxide is isotropic spherical fine particles produced by conventional methods and thus has had problems with respect to the coating property, the adhesion and the dispersibility.